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Monday, July 9, 2012

Zylstra: Snyder's Vetoes Prove He's No Pete Hoekstra

Governor Snyder allows the League of Women Voters to actually carry out a large part of their mission.

by Doug Zylstra
Vice Chairman, Ottawa County Democratic Party

Being
the Vice Chair of the Ottawa County Democratic Party, and not generally
agreeing with all that many Republican policies, I found myself in the
unusual position in August of 2010
voting for not one, but two Republicans in their primary races. The
first
was Spring Lake resident Field Reichardt,
whom I believe would have made a great congressional nominee for the
fall race against Holland Democrat Dr. Fred Johnson.
The second was Rick Snyder, whom I thought
to be a more moderate, less ideological and a generally more competent
candidate than his main rival, Holland resident and former US
Representative Pete Hoekstra. Field, unfortunately, did not win his
race-but Mr. Snyder of course, did, and convincingly. He then went on to
defeat Lansing Mayor and the Democratic candidate Virg Bernero in the
November general election.

Gov. Rick Snyder

Up until last Tuesday, outside of some helpful and interesting
Dashboards, I hadn't really felt that I had got anything for my vote,
and instead felt that Governor Snyder was basically governing the way a
Governor Hoekstra would have, But Tuesday was the day that Governor
Snyder finally redeemed a bit of his promise of being above politics by
vetoing a package of voter
suppression laws—including SB 754 —passed by the
state legislature -which would have expanded unnecessary voter
ID requirements and imposed unfair requirements and restrictions on
voter registration drives, all making it harder for eligible Michigan
citizens to participate in our democracy.

Under Senate Bill 754, lawmakers wanted to require third-party groups
like the League of Women Voters, who have been registering people to vote
for decades, to get mandatory training by the Secretary of State's
office or county election clerks. Under the proposed law, new training,
certification, and paperwork requirements would have made it more difficult
for groups such as the League to conduct registration drives, resulting
in fewer opportunities for citizens to register at locations such as
schools, community centers, and churches. According to national data,
Hispanic and African American voters are twice as likely as white
voters to join over nine million citizens who register through voter registration drives and, therefore,
more likely to be adversely affected.

From
Pennsylvania to
Florida to Texas, the current trend has been for legislators and
governors to pass laws whose main purpose is to suppress, not empower,
American voters. With an estimated 51 million eligible Americans still
not registered to vote, such laws represent a major step in the wrong
direction. Previously, Governor Snyder had stated that he opposed laws
that
disenfranchise eligible voters, and yesterday, he carried that out.

Republican
response in Michigan to Governor Snyder's veto has been unusually
harsh. Ari Adler, Michigan House Speaker Jase Bolger's
spokesman, said in a statement that, "It is not unreasonable to expect
that people handling voter
registrations should receive some basic training, People who believe
they are registering
to vote should have confidence in the process so they know their
registrations are being handled properly. Antics by unscrupulous groups
such as ACORN have proven that protecting the voter registration process
is vital if we hope to preserve the integrity of ballots cast by every
eligible voter."

Aside from the fact that ACORN no longer exists
and allegations that they and groups like them ever engaged in voter
fraud have been repeatedly disproved, it really is telling that Michigan
Republicans seem much more concerned that one or two people may have an
incorrect registration form than that hundreds and thousands of
Michigan citizens may be denied the ability to participate in our great
democratic experiment.

Writing this on the day that we celebrate our independence and
liberty, it really feels good that Governor Snyder has stood up for
democratic participation and sent a clear message that voter suppression
will not be
tolerated. I hope other local elected officials, from all three of our
state reps to our state senator who voted for this and the other
suppression bills, will
follow his example. In the words of recent Secretary of State candidate
Jocelyn Benson, ”This is a victory for every voter in this state, and a
great nod to
tomorrow’s holiday. Congratulations to all who worked to amplify
peoples’ voices and emphasize the negative impact the vetoed portions of
this package would have on our citizens and elections officials."

Zylstra

Douglas Zylstra is a small business owner and the Vice-Chair of the Ottawa County Democratic Party. Connect with Doug on Facebook here

3 comments:

Doug said: ---"Being the Vice Chair of the Ottawa County Democratic Party, and not generally agreeing with all that many Republican policies, I found myself in the unusual position in August of 2010 voting for not one, but two Republicans in their primary races."

Another unusual position is you as a Democrat voting in the other Parties Primary. Not cool.

Jeff - Not sure why you dislike the Idea of crossover voting. I wasn't try to 'mess around' or anything. I honestly thought Field and Gov. Snyder were the best candidates on that side, for integrity reasons most of all..

I've got no issue with crossover voting in the general. But you said you voted for Snyder in the Republican primary. To do so you had to declare yourself a Republican and not vote in the Democrat Primary. It's because you are an official in the Dem party that my eyebrows were raised.